Joshua 18:4

_GIVE OUT FROM AMONG YOU THREE MEN FOR EACH TRIBE: AND I WILL SEND THEM, AND THEY SHALL RISE, AND GO THROUGH THE LAND, AND DESCRIBE IT ACCORDING TO THE INHERITANCE OF THEM; AND THEY SHALL COME AGAIN TO ME._ Give out from among you three men for each tribe. Though the lot determined the part of the country where each tribe was to be located, it could not determine the extent of territory which might be required; and the dissatisfaction of the children of Joseph with the alleged smallness of their possession gave reason to fear that complaints might arise from other quarters, unless precautions were taken to make a proper distribution of the land. For this purpose a commission was given to 21 persons-three chosen from each of the seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance-to make an accurate survey of the country. They "went and passed through the land, and described it by...

4._Give out from among you three men, _etc Caleb and Joshua had already surveyed those regions, and the people had learned much by inquiry: Joshua, however, wishes the land to be divided as if according to actual survey (162) and orders three surveyors to be appointed for each of the seven tribes, in order that by the mouth of two or three persons every dispute may be settled. But nothing seems more incongruous than to send twenty-one men, who were not only to pass directly through a hostile country, but to trace it through all its various windings and turnings, so as not to leave a single corner unexamined, to calculate, its length and breadth, and even make due allowance for its inequalities. Every person whom they happened to meet must readily have suspected who they were, and for what reason they had been employed on this expedition. In short, no free return lay open for them except...

2-10 After a year or more, Joshua blamed their slackness, and told them how to proceed. God, by his grace, has given us a title to a good land, the heavenly Canaan, but we are slack to take possession of it; we enter not into that rest, as we might by faith, and hope, and holy joy. How long shall it be thus with us? How long shall we thus stand in our own light, and forsake our own mercies for lying vanities? Joshua stirs the Israelites up to take possession of their lots. He is ready to do his part, if they will do theirs....

Verse Joshua 18:4. _THREE MEN FOR_ EACH _TRIBE_] Probably meaning only _three_ from each of the _seven_ tribes who had not yet received their inheritance. It is likely that these twenty-one men were accompanied by a military guard, for without this they might have been easily cut off by straggling parties of the Canaanites. _THEY SHALL - DESCRIBE IT_] It is likely they were persons well acquainted with geography and mensuration, without which it would have been impossible for them to have divided the land in the way necessary on this occasion....

THREE MEN FOR EACH TRIBE - i. e. 21 in all. Their duty would be to describe the land, especially with reference to the cities it contained Joshua 18:9, that Joshua might have the means of making a first apportionment among the tribes according to their varying numbers....

EXPOSITION THE CONTINUED DIVISION OF THE LAND.— JOSHUA 18:1 CONGREGATION. The word signifies a body of persons gathered together at a spot before indicated. The LXX. renders by συναγωγή. The idea is evidently that of an assembly gathered together for some specific acts of worship. This passage teaches the duty of a national recognition of religion. Whatever evils there might be in Israel at that time, the absence of a general and formal acknowledgment of God was not one of them. When that public acknowledgment of Him ceased, the downfall of the nation was at hand. It was the absence of such acknowledgment that was the ruin of Israel, while the hypocritical and purely external recognition of God by Judah was equally o

GIVE OUT FROM AMONG YOU THREE MEN FOR [EACH] TRIBE,.... That is, for each of the seven tribes, in all twenty one; though some think they were to be taken out of all the nine tribes and a half, and were thirty six; and so Josephus a seems to understand it; but then he makes but one out of each tribe to be sent, and but ten in all, which is a great oversight in that historian: AND I WILL SEND THEM; Joshua would not take upon him to name the persons, but left it to their own choice for their greater satisfaction; but when chosen and presented to him, he would give them a commission and directions what to do: AND THEY SHALL RISE; gird themselves, and prepare for their journey, and set out: AND GO THROUGH THE LAND; of Canaan; not the whole of it, but that part which as yet was not disposed of; though some think they were to go through and describe the whole land; but I see no reason for th...

6. THE PORTION OF THE REST OF THE TRIBES CHAPTER 18 _ 1. The tabernacle at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1)_ 2. The remaining seven tribes (Joshua 18:2) 3. The lot of Benjamin (Joshua 18:11) The tabernacle of the congregation is now set up at Shiloh. Shiloh means “peace,” “security.” The land was then subdued before them. Shiloh is now the center. From there the operations proceed. Seven times after this Shiloh is mentioned in the book of Joshua: Joshua 18:8; Joshua 19:51;...

MEN. Hebrew, plural of _ish or enosh._ App-14. GO THROUGH. walk to and fro....

Joshua 18:1-10. Erection of the Tabernacle at Shiloh 1. _And the whole congregation of the children of Israel_ The descendants of Judah and of Joseph had now taken up their respective inheritances, the one in the south, the other in the north of the country. But "the murmuring," it has been remarked, "of the children of Joseph, and the spirit from which it proceeded, gave sad indications of danger in the near future. National disintegration, tribal jealousies, coupled with boastfulness and unwillingness to execute the work given them of God, were only too surely foreboded in the conduct of the children of Joseph. If such troubles were to be averted, it was high time to seek a revival of religion." Dr Edersheim's _Israel in Canaan under Joshua and the Judges_, p. 94. The camp at Gilgal, therefore, was broken up, and the people removed to Shiloh, which was situated within